New International Version - UK

Habakkuk 1

1The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received.

Habakkuk’s complaint

2 How long, Lord, must I call for help,but you do not listen?Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’but you do not save?3 Why do you make me look at injustice?Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?Destruction and violence are before me;there is strife, and conflict abounds.4 Therefore the law is paralysed,and justice never prevails.The wicked hem in the righteous,so that justice is perverted.

The Lord’s answer

5 ‘Look at the nations and watch –and be utterly amazed.For I am going to do something in your daysthat you would not believe,even if you were told.6 I am raising up the Babylonians,[a]that ruthless and impetuous people,who sweep across the whole earthto seize dwellings not their own.7 They are a feared and dreaded people;they are a law to themselvesand promote their own honour.8 Their horses are swifter than leopards,fiercer than wolves at dusk.Their cavalry gallops headlong;their horsemen come from afar.They fly like an eagle swooping to devour;9 they all come intent on violence.Their hordes[b] advance like a desert windand gather prisoners like sand.10 They mock kingsand scoff at rulers.They laugh at all fortified cities;by building earthen ramps they capture them.11 Then they sweep past like the wind and go on –guilty people, whose own strength is their god.’

Habakkuk’s second complaint

12 Lord, are you not from everlasting?My God, my Holy One, you[c] will never die.You, Lord, have appointed them to execute judgment;you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish.13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?Why are you silent while the wickedswallow up those more righteous than themselves?14 You have made people like the fish in the sea,like the sea creatures that have no ruler.15 The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks,he catches them in his net,he gathers them up in his drag-net;and so he rejoices and is glad.16 Therefore he sacrifices to his netand burns incense to his drag-net,for by his net he lives in luxuryand enjoys the choicest food.17 Is he to keep on emptying his net,destroying nations without mercy?